Hornets Head to Miami to Take on Struggling Heat
The Charlotte Hornets will face the Miami Heat on March 23rd, for the second time in two weeks. This will be the last meeting between these two Southeastern teams, and the Hornets are looking to tie the season series at two games apiece. Charlotte has already beaten one of the best teams in the East this week and now will look to defeat a Miami team that has lost 10 straight games. Charlotte looks for their second win in the past three games while Miami looks to hold on to the last Play-In spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Hornets have continued to show improvement throughout the season. This is in part due to the team getting key starters back from injury and playing with more aggressive defensive and offensive approaches. Charlotte is getting to the foul line more on offense and the team as a whole is shooting at 90 percent from the free-throw line this month. On defense, they are forcing more turnovers and deflections. An example of this would be that their defense is in the top ten amongst steals and blocks per game. The play of Miles Bridges has also been impressive and in the most recent meeting with the Heat, he had 35 points including the game-winning three-point shot that completed a 17-point comeback for the Hornets. This was Charlotte’s first win over a division opponent this season.
Miami amid its losing streak has struggled with turnovers and blowing fourth-quarter leads. They turned the ball over 16 times against the Hornets the last time they played. Turnovers are going to be an issue that the Hornets could exploit as the Heat are currently giving up 17 points off turnovers and 13 second-chance points this season. Miami is 4-17 since trading Jimmy Butler III to the Golden State Warriors and this team has not looked the same since. Their offensive numbers have plummeted while Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo try to hold this team together during the final stretch of the regular season.
The Hornets could very easily win this game due to how they have been playing recently, but they also could lose it because they are playing a divisional opponent. The key to the game will be the turnover battle as the Hornets need to force more than to give the ball away. Forcing turnovers is how the Hornets got back in the game last time against the Heat, which helped complete the comeback. The Heat are spiraling right now so it would be in the best interests of the Hornets to get a win over them now to continue to build momentum as they head towards the end of their season.
